Even in the face of constant budget cuts, there’s no telling what those crazy folks at NASA will do next. Last week they found that new measurements of Mars' south polar region indicate extensive frozen water.  The Weekly Volcano was hoping for Otterspace Pops.  Unfortunately, it turned out to be enough frozen water to cover the whole planet in a liquid layer approximately 36 feet deep â€" but hey, you never know until you look.

The more paranoid among us might wonder whether it’s wise to be messing around with space ice, but it might help to forget our worries at the Tacoma Astronomical Society’s Public Night when the society allows the public to view heavenly bodies through telescopes, but not in an icky way. â€" Suzy Stump

[Pierce College Fort Steilacoom, Saturday, March 24, 7:30 p.m., free, Sunrise Building, 9401 Farwest Dr., Lakewood]

It’s cold.  I’m ready for a hot vacation.  But I’m broke. So, naturally, I head down South Tacoma Way.

My friend Maria and I make the Olympus Spa our destination, casting off the thoughts of snow with our clothes as we head to the pools and heated rooms that transplant us into Shangri-la for the afternoon.

I‘ve also scheduled myself a wrap, which I thought was the same as the moisturizing treatment I’ve seen.  I was wrong, gloriously wrong.

The moisturizing treatments look like dying and going to salad heaven â€" basically, you sit in an open treatment room with up to six other women, all as naked as you, and get olive oil rubbed on your body and cucumber mulch packed onto your face. In the same rooms, the exfoliating body scrubs also happen, where teeny, biking-shorts clad Korean women harf on every part of your body with what is, effectively, plastic sandpaper.  Your skin tingles and glows like you’ve just drunk a gallon of neon after this treatment, and even the rougher parts of you feel like a newborn baby’s bum.

It’s divine, even when the woman scrubbing you is pulling up a butt cheek to get at skin you had no idea needed exfoliating.

But today, I’m not getting one of those treatments. After sitting in the 104 degree hot-tub, the 97 degree hot-tub, the 93 degree mineral bath, and then back to the 97 degree tub, I get taken by massage therapist Kari Welch into a private room, and get a mud-like concoction, good for detoxification, slathered on me.  Then I’m wrapped in a plastic sheet (painter’s drop cloth?) and one of those mylar emergency blankets. I get a sublime face and scalp massage, and then sit for a while. 

For me, it’s excruciating. I’m a multi-tasker by nature, but here in the dark, sweating profusely, I can do nothing but clear my mind and relax.

Time passes quickly.  I shower, and then decide to extend my “vacation” by going into the Sand Room.  The thing I love about this room is that I can pretend I’m on a beach, and create wells for the parts of my body that extend beyond flat (use your imagination.)  I can only last in the heat for about 15 minutes, after which I sit on the heated flat room in between the waiting room, the wet room, and the heated rooms.  Groups sit and chat, or read magazines, or, like me, just rest.

It’s about time to get back onto the ice, so I make one last visit to the wet room, shed my robe, and heat my body up in the 104 degree tub.  Nearly poached to well-done, I head over to the 60 degree pool (with waterfall!) and do the super-quick dunk, then rinse off with a sluicing from the mugwort well.

My vacation is abruptly ended as I walk into a parking lot covered with ice, while snow flurries around; but even though I’m no longer relaxing in the heat with a group of naked women, the warm afterglow remains with me. â€" Jessica Corey-Butler

For most of us, Korean cuisine can be difficult to like. First of all, it is the cuisine that gave the world kimchi – the notoriously stinky, fermented cabbage that is an essential part of any Korean meal and an acquired taste at best. Then there is the fact that so few Korean restaurants bother to Americanize. Most cater to Koreans only, so in reality there is little need to do so.

But this is a healthful style of cooking and quite delicious to boot.

Palace Restaurant and Cafe is no exception. Born three weeks ago in the former Papaya Sports Bar on South Tacoma Way, it is one of the more inviting, visually, of the two dozen or so Korean restaurants in Lakewood's Korean Town. The open concept décor mixes dark woods, purple and yellow halogen lighting, and modern touches with hokey red ribbons on plants, Korean advertisements and Korean programming on large plasma screens. On a recent lunch, there were around a dozen Korean men wearing golf hats, who had apparently just finished playing 18, and several groups of Korean businesswomen.  I was the only Caucasian but felt welcomed.

The menu is divided between noodle dishes, seafood, chicken, barbecue, and lunch boxes. Beef tends to be the main attraction at the Palace. With almost any entree you order, you also will get pa'chan – around 10 side dishes filled to the brim with kimchi, rice, house soup, yellow bean sprouts, pickled pineapple and on and on.  The boneless barbecue chicken arrived mountain size and quite tasty.

I'll have to send Weekly Volcano lounge rat Brad Allen their way.  The Palace's list of exotic cocktails is his dream exercise.

[Palace Restaurant and Cafe, opens at 11 a.m., 8718 S. Tacoma Way, Lakewood]

When Weekly Volcano Headquaters USA vacated from the Lakewood Towne Center a year ago, we left as an entire wing of the center lay practically vacant.  The Liquor Store was gone.  La Palma was gone.  Starbucks had nearly moved to its new location. People openly wept in the streets.  Now, after a facelift, things are coming back to life on Main Street, including a new restaurant soon.  Marked with only a sign stating "Breakfast and Lunch Cafe," the new eatery is taking up shop in the old La Palma site.  We'll keep you posted. - Jason de Paul.

The brave Weekly Volcano staff took part in a free food Monday at the opening of Panera Bread in the Lakewood Towne Center near Target.  The early report indicates this is a winner.  Try the potato soup.  You still have time to get $12 in free food today. - Jason de Paul

The Lakewood location of Panera Bread opens Monday to customers near Target in the Towne Center.  This is the second location for Panera in the South Sound - The other spot opened last week in Hawks Prairie at the Home Deport Center. - Jason de Paul

The Lakewood Playhouse offers a pay what you can performance tonight for "Fiddler On the Roof."  They start selling tickets at 7 p.m. for the 8 p.m. performance. 
This musical about a Russian village at the rise of communism never gets old because, at its heart, the show is a look at family and the role of traditions to keep the family together and when those same traditions work to drive it apart. The show runs through April 30, with showtimes at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. "Fiddler" is a staple of community theater because it is a well-known work with a lot of roles for everyone. And it just seems fitting that a play about a community take a community to stage it well. The theater is located at 5729 Lakewood Towne Center Blvd., Lakewood. Tickets are $12 to $20 and available by calling (253) 588-0042. - Steve Dunkelberger

The head chef at East-West Cafe opens Long Beach Cafe April 10 in the old Mylan restaurant spot in Lakewood at Bridgeport and Lakewood Boulevard. We will sorely miss Mylan, which served the best pan-Asian in the Lakewood area.  We thought the odds were stacked against them because they never promoted themselves; it still hurts to see them go.  Long Beach Cafe may be a fine substitute, promising Vietnamese and Thai fare with no MSG. - Jason de Paul.

Tanglewood Grill (7505 Steilacoom Blvd., Lakewood) offers a free meal to kids 10 and younger when accompanied by a full paying adult - lunch and dinner, seven days a week.  The prime dip sandwich is worth the visit. - Jason de Paul.

The Ram Brewery in Lakewood shuts down in mid-May for a major remodel.  The plans call for designing this Ram to resemble the new Hawks Prairie Ram by September.  I love the Ram's almond chicken salad (just thought you should know). - Jason de Paul